Graham Thomson: Is Wildrose still cool to the reality of man-made global warming?

I’d like to use my column today to directly address members of Alberta’s Wildrose caucus.
Everyone else can take a break. Grab a coffee, stretch your legs, turn to the comics page. At least there you’ll get a chuckle.
Today’s topic is no laughing matter.

I’d like to use my column today to directly address members of Alberta’s Wildrose caucus.

Everyone else can take a break. Grab a coffee, stretch your legs, turn to the comics page. At least there you’ll get a chuckle.

Today’s topic is no laughing matter.

Hello Wildrose MLAs.

I have a message for you: “Man-made climate change is real and we need to tackle it head-on.”

That quote, by the way, is not from me but from your leader, Brian Jean, who said it during the 2015 provincial election.

You might want to copy the quote, laminate it and sticky-tape it to your sleeve for the next time you’re asked by a reporter if you think man-made climate change is real.

Jean’s response is much better than the one given this week by Wildrose MLA Don MacIntyre who said, when asked by a reporter Thursday about his party’s reputation for climate change denial, “Climate change is a reality. It’s been a reality ever since this world was first spit out into orbit.”

Uh-oh. That sounds suspiciously like the kind of response climate-change denying politicians give when they want to diminish the impact of humans on climate change.

They argue that the climate has been changing for eons and this is just another cycle.

So, what exactly is the Wildrose position on global warming?Larry Wong /
Edmonton Journal

We heard a similar argument last March from another Wildrose MLA, Rick Strankman, when asked if he believes in climate change: “You just look in Drumheller, look at all the striations of all the lines in the river valley. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. It’s been going on for eons.”

Yes, but the issue these days is about man-made climate change and how humans are a main culprit in global warming through the burning of fossil fuels.

You can see where I’m going with this.

The Wildrose has a history of questioning the science of man-made climate change going back to former leader Danielle Smith, who helped sink her party’s election campaign in 2012 by, well, questioning the science of man-made climate change.

I talked with MacIntyre on Friday to have him explain his comment.

“I believe that climate change is real and of course people are having an impact through releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” said MacIntyre. “I am not an alarmist, however.”

MacIntyre went on to say we are in a natural climate cycle: “We are going through a natural change as you well know. The question is how much of that change is being aggravated by man’s contribution.”

However, here is a quote from the 2013 report written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”

Related

And here’s the lead line from NASA’s page on the causes of climate change: “Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the ‘greenhouse effect’ — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.”

It’s true that scientists don’t have all the answers, but what we do know from the science is that climate change is real and it’s caused largely by humans.

So, this is my message to Wildrose MLAs who don’t seem to accept the conclusion of most climate scientists: Your comments that global warming is a “natural change” at the very least undermines the message of your leader, who is fighting against a carbon tax on fiscal grounds.

You’re giving the impression that your opposition to a tax is rooted not in a denial of the Alberta government’s fiscal wisdom, but in a denial of the science of man-made climate change.

To reiterate your leader’s position: “Man-made climate change is real and we need to tackle it head-on.”

You might want to cut that part of this column out, too, and tape it to your other sleeve, just to be sure you got the message.

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